Advocates delivered half a pie to every Pennsylvania legislator Tuesday. Why half a pie?

To remind them that a decade of large tax cuts for businesses has left schools, health care services, and local communities with a smaller share of the state budget pie.

One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do …

Although I’m dating myself, some of you may recognize the Harry Nilsson song made famous by Three Dog Night. We recommend that Governor Tom Corbett download it to his iPod as he contemplates whether to accept a solitary bid from Camelot Global Services to take over the operation of the Pennsylvania Lottery. Whether privatizing state services or getting a new roof for your house, having a single lonely bidder is a red flag for a fleecing — for overpaying the contractor.

In its bid, Camelot promises 20 to 30 years of lottery profits that barely increase at the rate of inflation — even with the addition of new lottery games such as Keno and online gaming. The deal could produce big-time profits for Camelot with performance no better than the public system could produce. If the company maxes out its incentive-based compensation over the initial 20-year contract, it could receive $1.15 billion in today’s dollars; more when you count annual management fees.

A good deal for Camelot, but not for the Pennsylvania seniors who benefit from lottery proceeds

Pennsylvania recently passed Act 147 – also known as the Indigenous Mineral Resources Development Act – opening up the floodgates for hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on the campuses of its public universities. As noted in a recent post by DeSmog, the shale gas industry hasn’t limited Version 2.0 of “frackademics” to PA’s campuses, but is also fracking close to hundreds of K-12 schools across the country, as well.

In Pennsylvania – a state that sits in the heart of the Marcellus Shale basin – the concept of “frackademia” and “frackademics” has taken on an entirely new meaning.

On Sept. 27, the PA House of Representatives – in a 136-62 vote – passed a bill that allows hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” to take place on the campuses of public universities. Its Senate copycat version passed in June in a 46-3 vote and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett signed it into law as Act 147 on Oct. 8.

Governor Tom Corbett’s administration has a new summary of Pennsylvania’s recent job performance. Today’s news that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is as high as the national unemployment rate underscores, however, that the state’s recent jobs record is not good. Let’s take a closer look.

The Administration of Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania is stamping its feets about Justice Department requests for documents on the state’s new voter ID law. They don’t want to turn over the data on how many voters could be disenfranchised the law, for fear that the DoJ would… find out, I guess.

Viviette Applewhite, the 93 year-old who was one of the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania voter ID case, received her ID card this week. Despite voting in practically every election since she became eligible, she didn’t have a driver’s license or Social Security card, and her birth certificate features a different name than the one on her other documents. But the state waived these impediments, which should have made her ineligible for a photo ID card, and provided her one anyway.

We’re supposed to believe that this is proof that Pennsylvania will make whatever effort necessary to get eligible voters the ID they need. But of course, this is just one high-profile case, out of as many as 750,000.

Pennsylvania officials put the initial estimate of how many Pennsylvanians currently do not carry eligible ID for voting under a new law at 1% of the electorate, a manageable situation. A subsequent analysis expanded that to 9%, around 750,000 voters. A different analysis this week doubled that, and added that 43% of all voters in Philadelphia would be affected. Now we have a more formal answer to the question, courtesy of the court battle taking place over the law. An expert testified yesterday that 1 million voters would be ineligible if they did not secure the proper ID.

Some details emerged about the state budget framework unveiled midweek by Governor Tom Corbett and legislative leaders, but questions still remain.

Fatster rounds up the weekend news with stories and links about the Euro, Germanyn, Syria, Afghanistan, Burma, Florida voter registration, Mitch Daniels, public unions, FCC, Tom Corbett, school choice, Bernie Sanders, and much more.